Philosophy of Art Education

     

     There was a day when elementary art was simply about making cute holiday decorations for the hallway bulletin boards.  There also was a day when most elementary art programs, if they existed in schools, were to offer grade level teachers a time slot for their conference and planning periods.  There was a day when middle school art may have been considered a “blow off” class.  There was a day when high school art was viewed as the only important art program within a school district, or there was no art program at all.  Art education has made many important strides over the years.  Most artists, art educators, and also general education teachers now realize the importance art education can have in the holistic development of the student.  When students are limited to right-side brain thinking or left-side brain thinking, the whole brain is not used or completely active. While the importance our society at large places on art education will continue to ebb and flow, as it has since classical times, art education is home to the development of logical, sequential thinking by students.

     One way students can use the whole brain, further developing their logical, sequential thinking, is by participating in engaging projects. Project based learning is becoming very important in the school setting. Art educators, however, have always experienced the very real, tangible, cognitive,  and visual results of project based learning.  Art educators see the connections, inferences, and transfer of learning acquired via art with other curricula and with life. Art education may now have a place, more than ever before, in the overall education of a child, young adult or adult due to the mainstreaming of technology not only in our schools, but in the art classroom.

      Micro-level thinking must give way to macro-level thinking in art education. Technology is changing students’ world, our world, more rapidly than ever before in . . .
history.  Art educators resisted technology integration in the early years of technology. They could not see tactile, slurpy, wet, manipulative paint giving way to glossy, hard, plastic computer screens and other device screens.  Yet, the art classroom is the perfect setting for the integration of multi-faceted technology with art (tradigital art). The art classroom is also the perfect setting for students to learn greater skills in globally inspired art, ecological art, STEM education integrations, STEAM education, literacy based art, social justice art, art media and technique, project development and implementation, the quickly broadening career possibilities because of technology, and many other genres of art education.  Art education has more ability than ever before to provide students with a larger view of their sense of self and place. The elements and principles of art will always be a visual language that are taught in the art room, but they should only be a small part of art curricula. Art education is much more than that.

     My philosophy of art education if firmly grounded in globalization and teaching globally inspired art. This is much different than teaching “folk art.” Folk art has been taught in traditional art education for decades. It involves limited teaching about the tools, functional items, or art that native or indigenous people make. Globally inspired art is much different. It involves teaching art making of any kind, but involves a tradigital or digital component which allows students to study any genre of art education in the emerging globalization framework.  Globalization refers to the interconnectedness of people due to global ease of transportation and communication.  By interweaving traditional art making with digital art and digital or virtual communication, by having a tradigital focus, art education has fully grasped the 21^st century.  Simply said, tradigital art is a combining traditional art with technology.  A good example of tradigital art is a student painting a background, taking a digital photograph of the background, inserting it in computer or iPad software as the background, adding a digital photo of themselves which they clip, using an app to open up the brain of the student, and having the students thoughts about the space system or images of the space system flowing out of their brain. Numerous applications of traditional art and digital art are combined in steps and layers to link the two.

     The 21^st century, and the 22^nd century, and the 23^rd century, demand that tradigital art curricula be the norm in the art classroom. When students are engaged in concepts and cognitive processes involving critical inquiry and reflection which mirrors  their 21^st century life, it will generate within the student the desire and ability to ask questions about relationships observed in both the classroom and society.  While art education is complex and offers many benefits to students, students of all ages need to be introduced to the globalized, ecological context of art education. When education is presented with a globalization framework there are several positive results including: 1) More deeply engaged students in the conceptual and cognitive process of critical inquiry, 2) incorporation and the dynamic use of information technology as a tool for learning, 3) emphasizing of higher order thinking skills, 4) offering a more cross-disciplinary and holistic view of practice including art education, 5) fostering ethical leadership, and being inclusive and representative of the growing diversity in society, and  6) using art education in a way that furthers the advancement of the discipline by making it more relevant in the educational setting.

     I often say art has the ability to introduce students to not only other people groups, cultures, communities, and countries; art also has the ability to introduce students to themselves.  Additionally, art has a unique ability to cross borders and boundaries. Those borders and boundaries might be from one country or people group or government to another in a uniting spirit.  Art also has the ability to cross borders and boundaries within the educational environment. Countless times I have seen students begin to excel in their poor math skill because they had gained great confidence in their art making strength. I have seen students writing improve immensely because the word “imagery” had developed more meaning in their minds as they wrote because of the adverbs and adjectives that flowed from their thought processing because of  their art experience.  I have seen teachers practice become better because they grasped the creative needs of their students. The logical and sequential thinking that happens in art education most assuredly assists all students in all disciplines.  I believe art has an important setting in the educational system.  When it is reduced to holiday decorations or high school students wanting only to do anime or graffiti art, art education is not functioning at its finest in the 21^st century. It is not contributing to the holistic education of the child, young person, or adult. 

      I have had the privilege of mentoring future art educators through high school CTE courses, college education programs, with young art educators I have crossed paths with around the country, and through TAEA, NAEA and The Art of Ed. I implore art educators to rise to the sophisticated, cognitive level our art programs need to be at. Advocating for art education and the fine arts is something that fine arts teachers are used to. We are often the program whose budget gets cut first, who have volunteer non-paid teachers, or we are the program with no directors organizing and advocating for the fine arts faculty.  We are used to these kinds of situations.  We are used to teaching art on a cart, art from a closet, art in a geography room, art with no budget, art with a budget, art with PTO donations only, and art in community settings because some school districts do not offer art education. Art educators must be flexible teachers. Art educators also realize that the real beneficiary of all of this advocating is the STUDENTS.

      I am convinced that the way for art education to find a permanent home in any and all school districts-public or private, elementary or secondary (and I have taught elementary, middle school, high school, and over 3,000 art educators in recent years), and at the university level, is art must be RELEVANT. It must also be RIGOROUS.  This is how art education and art educators contribute SIGNIFICANTLY to the greater education of the student.  21^st century learning is, in some ways, rewriting how we think about all education.  Simply memorizing facts and being tested about this information may not be the future of education. With nearly anyone in developed countries and many in developing countries able to find out any factual information they need or want to know within a second on a cell phone or computer, education is entering a new phase.  Education is still the pathway and always will be the pathway to the future for students, but this education must be relevant in our changing world. I firmly believe that art is at its finest in the school setting when the art program is taught by an artist-teacher; someone who is an artist, even a very average artist, and someone who is also an educator. I also firmly believe that a relevant and rigorous university art education course will prepare all teachers, whether they are going to be art teachers or general education teachers, with the methodology to integrate visual arts and project based learning into their curriculum in a more vital, effective way. That is when art education contributes the MOST to students’ overall education.

        The folks at Skype have called me a “pioneer” in education. When I first saw that comment it surprised me because I just feel like a very normal teacher doing what good teachers do best…thinking outside the box, what is best for my students, how can I be a better teacher, how can my art program be excellent, how can I contribute to the future of my students and the future of art education and art educators, and how can I continue to learn…but also how can I contribute to the global imprint of humanity. By taking my students, no matter what their age, on a voyage outside of the four walls of the art classroom room or art studio, I know that as an educator I am preparing students for life in the 22^nd century and the 23^rd century. Oh, it will look much different than it does now, but I want to be the teacher on the space shuttle of education as it blasts out to the new frontier of learning. I thought my art education program needed to be “global,” but maybe it needs to be “universal.” Perhaps someday I’ll be up in space on a spaceship teaching my students back here on earth. We shall see. I’m pretty adventurous.